My favorite Elinor Lipman essay in I Can’t Complain is “The Funniest and the Favorite.” Elinor Lipman’s favorite book is Max Schulman’s The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis. I am a huge Max Schulman fan and after reading this essay I wanted to drop everything and reread that Dobie Gillis book. If Lipman was just writing about her favorite book, it would have been a fine essay. But Lipman adds another layer. Lipman reads The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis because her father recommended it to her when she was a kid. And, together, Lipman and her father grow closer together because of the love of books and humor. There are plenty of other fun essays in I Can’t Complain–I enjoyed the “Sex Ed” essay a lot–but none of essays moved me as much as the one where Lipman fell in love with reading. GRADE: B+
Table of Contents:
◾My introduction and my thanks
◾Meet the family.Julia’s child
◾The funniest and the favorite
◾How to get religion
◾Good grudgekeeping
◾No thank you, I think
◾Sex ed
◾The rosy glow of the backward glance
◾I still think, Call her
◾A tip of the hat to the old block
◾My soap opera journal
◾On writing.Confessions of a blurb slut
◾No outline? Is that any way to write a novel?
◾Which one is he again?
◾It was a dark and stormy nosh
◾Assignment: What happens next?
◾I touch a nerve
◾My book the movie
◾You author’s anxieties: a guide
◾Coupling columns.Boy meets girl
◾May I recommend
◾
◾I want to know
◾A mister and missus
◾Monsieur clean
◾Ego boundaries
◾I married a gourmet
◾I sleep around
◾The best man
◾Since then.This is for you
◾Watching the Masters by myself
◾We [heart] New York
◾A fine nomance.
Funny coincidence, as I just read a piece on the TV version of Dobie Gillis in the NYTimes Arts & Leisure section. It was definitely a favorite book and show and makes me want to seek this one out.
Love her novels, and Dobie was my first love: book and TV show. Must reread it too.
Patti, I got a kick out of Elinor’s Dad recommending Dobie to his young daughter!
Jeff, I might read a Max Shulman book for FFB very soon.
There is a long piece on Dobie Gillis in the NYT today. Life is so strange sometimes.
Patti, I haven’t picked up the NY TIMES yet. I’ll be looking forward to that long piece on Dobie!
I think Bill Crider did a retrospective piece on Shulman a while back. It’s difficult to name another once-popular American humorist who has since vanished so far off the radar (compare his visibility now vs his contemporary, Jean Shepherd). I read and laughed hard at many of his books back then, all in paperback editions with those wonderful cartoon covers by Eldon Dedini. Without the residual memories many of us old timers have of the Dobie Gillis show (for the guys, mainly of Tuesday Weld), he’d be completely forgotten. How often does Rally Round the Flag, Boys show up on tv?
Art, you’re right. Max Shulman is almost completely forgotten. I suspect humor writers (and their brand of humor) can become dated. I don’t know how funny RALLY ROUND THE FLAG, BOYS would be today. And you’re certainly on the money about Tuesday Weld–hotter than Annette!
When it comes to Shulman, RALLY ROUND THE FLAG, BOYS would be my favorite. Not sure why, but Gillis wasn’t one I liked that much (book or TV).
Rick, at the time of the TV version of Dobie Gillis, having a teenage character in a comedy address the audience on a regular basis was a radical concept. Through serendipity, I ran across my copy of RALLY ROUND THE FLAG, BOYS on DVD. I’ll have to find the book and reread it. Sounds like a good future double FFB posting to me!